Penetration Testing

Acknown Technologies is a full service I.T. consultancy delivering comprehensive
solutions to most diverse clientele.

In security as in life, the hardest weaknesses to pinpoint are your own. Fortunately, we have no problem thoroughly documenting all of your flaws. In fact, it’s kind of our job. And that’s a good thing: Knowing your vulnerabilities—and the ways in which attackers could exploit them—is one of the greatest insights you can get in improving your security program. With that in mind, Acknown Technologies’s Penetration Testing Services team will simulate a real-world attack on your networks, applications, devices, and/or people to demonstrate the security level of your key systems and infrastructure and show you what it will take to strengthen it. Much like your mom, we don't highlight your failings because it bothers you—we do it because we care.

Way more than security experts

The best way to stop attackers is to think and act like an attacker. Which is why, unlike many security firms, we don’t hire recent grads or people with more experience in IT than security as pen testers. Instead, we find good people who know about bad things. Things like ATM hacking, multi-function printer exploitation, automobile keyless entry attacks, endpoint protection bypass techniques, RFID cloning, security alarm system bypass… you get the idea. And those kinds of people? They’re way more than security experts—they’re bonafide hackers.

To stay perpetually one step ahead of attackers—and help others do the same—our testers devote 25% of their time to conducting research and contribute to the security community, publishing articles, presenting at conferences, developing and releasing open source testing tools, and writing popular Metasploit modules. (Bonus: Since we own Metasploit, our pen testers get unparalleled access to the most widely used penetration testing tool in the world.)

What to fix, and when and how to fix it

The best you can hope for from most penetration tests is a long list of problems with little context on how to fix them or where to start. Helpful, right? Acknown Technologies provides a prioritized list of issues, based on the exploitability and impact of each finding using an industry-standard ranking process.

What can you expect? A detailed description and proof of concept for each finding, as well as an actionable remediation plan. And because we understand that risk severity is only one factor in prioritizing remediation efforts, we'll also provide insight into the level of effort needed to remediate the findings. In addition, you'll receive:

1. An attack storyboard that walks you through sophisticated chained attacks

2. Scorecards that compare your environment with best practices from an attacker’s perspective

3. Positive findings that call out what security controls you have that are effective

Compliance is a by-product of good security

We believe that good security begets good compliance. That's why everything we do—from our investment and commitment in Metasploit to our new attacker analytics products—is focused on helping you better understand attackers and how to defend against them. This extends to our penetration testing services; every company’s network and challenges are unique, so our penetration testers tailor their methods and attack vectors for each engagement. We also conduct penetration tests on our own network and products regularly, to ensure they’re always up-to-date in detecting real-world attacks.

Our pen testing services

We simulate real-world attacks to provide a point-in-time assessment of vulnerabilities and threats to your network infrastructure.

In addition to the Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM) and the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) Acknown Technologies’s application penetration testing service leverages the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), a comprehensive framework for assessing the security of web-based applications, as a foundation for our web application assessment methodology.

As the widespread use of mobile applications continues to grow, consumers and corporations find themselves facing new threats around privacy, insecure application integration, and device theft. We go beyond looking at API and web vulnerabilities to examine the risk of the application on a mobile platform. We leverage the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM), and Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) methodologies to thoroughly assess the security of mobile applications.

Malicious users are often more successful at breaching a network infrastructure through social engineering than through traditional network/application exploitation. To help you prepare for this type of strike, we use a combination human and electronic methodologies to simulate attacks. Human-based attacks consist of impersonating a trusted individual in an attempt to gain information and/or access to information or the client infrastructure. Electronic-based attacks consists of using complex phishing attacks crafted with specific organizational goals and rigor in mind. Acknown Technologies will customize a methodology and attack plan for your organization.

Want to focus on your organization’s defense, detection, and response capabilities? Acknown Technologies works with you to develop a customized attack execution model to properly emulate the threats your organization faces. The simulation includes real-world adversarial behaviors and tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), allowing you to measure your security program’s true effectiveness when faced with persistent and determined attackers.

We leverage the Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM) and the Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES) as a foundation for our wireless assessment methodology, which simulates real-world attacks to provide a point-in-time assessment of vulnerabilities and threats to your wireless network infrastructure.